Sheen Sitcom Sued for $50 Million as Promo Push Gets Underway

The show, set to debut June 28 on FX, is a sitcom adaptation of the 2003 film comedy “Anger Management.” The producer, Jason Shuman, says in his lawsuit that he worked on adapting the movie into a TV comedy series for producer Joe Roth and then was dropped from the project when it became a reality. Roth and his production company are the ones being sued — not Sheen.

Our take: The details of the suit read like a scenario we’ve heard before in show business — a situation in which an individual claims he brought an idea to a movie or TV producer (or a book publisher), worked on it for a while at the producer’s behest, and then, when it came time to actually produce the project, the original creator was suddenly cut off and his calls unreturned.

Of course, these claims are not always true, which is why it often takes a lawsuit to sort ’em out. Whether this suit will derail or otherwise delay the debut of “Anger Management” could not be determined on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, FX is signaling its intention to move forward with “Anger Management” by producing some short promos for the show. In the first one, Sheen is seen rising from the dead.

Our take on these promos: They rightfully exploit the Sheen narrative — the huge, highly paid movie and TV star who succeeds and then fails in spectacular fashion. A year ago, Sheen was being fired from “Two and a Half Men” and doing all of those crazy interviews in which he boasted of his “tiger blood” and out-of-control drug use. Now, as usual, he’s asking for “forgiveness” in these cheeky promos. Of the two, it was the “24th chance” line that caught our attention because that is the key question: Will America take Charlie back — again?

That remains to be seen, but judging from his track record, the answer will probably be yes.